The Internet comprises multiple computer networks interconnected so that any computer on a given network can communicate with one or plural computers on any other given network. A gateway computer is a computer interconnecting two networks and passing data from one network to another network.
All the computers on the Internet communicate via a specific communication protocol, namely the Internet Protocol. Most applications use Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) along with the Internet Protocol. Accordingly, the Internet is also called the TCP/IP network. A computer connected to the Internet is identified by a unique Internet address.
The Internet performs routing of information by using the well-known packet switching technique. On the Internet, data is transmitted via a packet with an address (also called an IP packet). General Internet applications include those incorporating electronic mail, FTP, TELNET, network news, etc. The Internet protocol and applications are well known.
World Wide Web (namely, WWW or Web) is an information service system based on the Internet. WWW uses hypertext and client/server techniques. Hypertext is a method for structuring and presenting information so that a data object in a hypertext file can have a link to another hypertext file or data object. For instance, while a hypertext page is displayed, a user can select a word which has a link. Accordingly, the user can move to another hypertext file including another text or picture to explain the word (there are cases where the new file also has a link to another hypertext file, and from then on they are linked likewise).
Currently, many of hypertext files are composed by using hypertext markup language (HTML). A hypertext data object can be almost any information medium such as text, image, speech, image sequence or an executable computer program. Any hypertext file on the Web is uniquely identified by its universal resource locator (URL).
A Web client or a client (in general, a computer which executes a program called a browser) is essentially a hypertext reader which communicates with a Web server via a specific data transfer protocol such as the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). A client requests a hypertext file by using the appropriate URL and displays the file (called a Web page) on a graphical user interface (GUI). A Client can also return specific data to a server and call a common gateway interface (CGI) program to perform a specific task. Currently, NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR (trademark of Netscape Communications Corporation) and INTERNET EXPLORER (trademark of Microsoft Corp.) are known as general browsers.
WWW allows a user anywhere on the Internet to send a hypertext file on WWW by using the worldwide connections of the Internet, and allows any hypertext file to be fetched as conveniently as using a local hard disk. Thus, a user is given a strong tool for acquiring information, and the Internet becomes a hypermedia global database, namely an information superhighway.
The Internet and WWW have been dramatically expanding in recent years. Companies also expect a great opportunity in the use of the Internet and WWW as a new-generation worldwide communication basis for advancing into a huge consumer market.
In such Internet technologies, there exists a technology which uses a whiteboard to refer to common information with two terminals connected with a network (http://www.vocaltec.com/iphone4/ip4.htm, etc.). However, such a technology merely sends information, to be mutually referred to, to the other party connected by using the HTTP protocol, and does not allow access to that information again after a session has ended.
Moreover, even during a session, the information cannot be accessed by a third party. In addition, since data commonly referred to is displayed on the Web browser, the number of windows displayed on a desktop can be reduced. Also, in one aspect of the present invention, each user has a unique name to be stored on a server, and thus a file created by a specific user can be specified and referred to.
In conjunction with the problems to be solved by the present invention, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 10-247176 activates an application on a Web server from a client terminal side to have a running state of the application displayed on the Web browser screen of the client terminal. To utilize this technology, however, it is necessary to register an application to run on the server in advance. Also, since an application is run in compliance with a request from the client terminal, the server's burden increases. Moreover, since an application is run in response to a request from the client terminal and the result, etc. are sent to the client terminal, there are drawbacks, namely, communication time becomes longer and the load to the system increases.
On the other hand, as in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 10-124461, a collaboration technology is proposed, which allows plural users to simultaneously perform collaborative work on an HTML page (access, loading or change). FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of applying this collaborative work on an HTML page to an Internet banking system. This technology allows an event, etc. occurred on a URL or a Web browser specified by one user to be sent to another user's terminal so that reference to a common page, etc. can be made. If this technology is used, a bank agent can refer to the same page as a customer and simultaneously have communication such as mutually confirming its contents by telephone 1365A and 1365B.
In communicating with another operator in a remote place by using such a collaboration technology, there was a request asking that a state of an application other than a Web browser is immediately shown to the other operator.